Grave of 8-year-old boy opened to retrieve tablet sought in bullying investigation

Authorities say the grave of an eight-year-old Ohio boy who killed himself after his mother says he was bullied at school was opened to remove a computer tablet sought by investigators.

The Hamilton County Coroner’s Office says Gabriel Taye’s grave was opened Wednesday to remove the tablet for the county prosecutor’s office.

The coroner’s office says the body couldn’t be re-examined, but wouldn’t comment further.

The family’s attorneys say the mother buried the tablet with him ‘to make sure he had something to play with in heaven.’

The attorneys say she learned her son was bullied after seeing an email a Cincinnati police detective wrote describing the scene outside a boys’ bathroom where the attorneys say he was knocked unconscious.

He hanged himself days later at his home in January.

Cincinnati school officials released the disturbing surveillance video last month which reveals how a January 24 locker room assault left the child unconscious two days before he hanged himself.

The video, shot from a hallway camera at Carson Elementary School shows the eight-year-old being pulled to the ground by another student in a bathroom and left lying for over five minutes while other boys kick and prod him.

Eventually, school officials come to his aid, but Gabriel’s mother says they did not tell her that her son had been assaulted or he had lost consciousness.

Cincinnati school officials debated whether or not to release the video.

In the end, they decided it was in the public interest to distribute the footage. The school board sought and received approval from Gabriel’s mother.

‘We felt this video added to the public knowledge about what happened in this case,’ Cincinnati Public Schools said in a statement.

‘We believe parents and members of the community have the right to important information that helps them understand how safe students at local schools are.’

After viewing the video, a coroner has reopened an investigation into Gabriel’s suicide.

The coroner has urged police to treat this incident ‘as a homicide until proven otherwise.’